White Lion - Return of the Pride

If you feel that what music needs the most is sappy ballads, screeching guitars and more rock and roll, then Return of the Pride will fill that hole in your heart. In the everything old is new again category is the return of 80’s hair band White Lion.  Yeah, that’s right.  I said White Lion has a new album.  It took seventeen years to get a new album released but the band is back…we’ll Mike Tramp, the lead singer, is back with a new group that carries the same name. The good news is they haven’t gone the pop country way of their contemporary Bon Jovi.  White Lion is here to rock out with their…well you know…on Return of the Pride. Rock music has become neutered over the past decade thanks to bands like Nickelback and Fallout Boy.  To hear an honest to God rock band these days seems like a cool drink of water in the desert. White Lion isn’t going to quench your thirst but they will wet your lips and make you remember what rock music sounds like. There has been some debate over the fact that Mike Tramp is dusting off the White Lion name and parading back out into the market place.  After all, is a band really the same if only one of the original members is still performing…Alex Rose says yes.  White Lion isn’t the first name that jumps to your mind when you think of hard rocking 80’s hair bands.  The two songs (“Wait”, “When The Children Cry”) they’re most known for are more of the ‘anthem’ softer sound that was so popular in the late 80’s.  Surprisingly, White Lion developed a harder sound and bring their A game to their return album. Does that mean you’re going to find the new White Lion trying to redo “Wait” or “When the Children Cry”?  Not really, lead guitarist Jamie Low fills the boots of Vito Bratta with scorching guitar solos (and would hair metal be without guitar solos?).  Return of the Pride opens with the intense “Sangre de Christo”.  It’s an epic song that lasts and full 8-minutes.  It kicks off the album and sets you up for the rest.  “Live Your Life” is a kick in the ass wakeup call that hair metal fans will air guitar to. Then there is the obligatory ballad with “Never Let You Go”.  Tramp waxes poetic about love, of course. Your enjoyment of Return of the Pride will largely depend up on your love of 80’s hair metal.  If you think it’s crap, odds are you’re really not going to enjoy this CD at all.  If you feel that what music needs the most is sappy ballads, screeching guitars and more rock and roll, then Return of the Pride will fill that hole in your heart.